The Inheritance: A Brief History of Hartney



Hartney may claim to be one of the few settlement-era railway towns whose location was not arbitrarily chosen by the railway company. Sometime in 1889 it became apparent that the long-anticipated Souris Branch, that eventually was to connect Brandon with Melita and beyond, was to become a reality. Word circulated that a town was planned on a site somewhat northeast of present-day Hartney (35-6-23) but settlers protested and petitioned the C.P.R., insisting that the new town should be near where James Hartney had established a post office and store on his farm in 1882. He had thus established a recognized centre for the surrounding district. When the surveyors did appear they selected a spot within a mile of the Hartney farm and, the settlers, seeing this as, no doubt close enough, were satisfied.  Upon learning that the C.P.R had chosen the name Airdrie for the new station settlers made an additional request that the name Hartney, already applied to the post office serving the community, be the name of the new town.  Once again the C.P.R made the change.
 

                         James Hartney

So, although the town was new in 1890, the region itself had a long and interesting history. The wooded valley of the Souris has long been a place of shelter, a gathering place for various aboriginal peoples. Ongoing archeological explorations, especially those in the sand hills to the west continue to uncover the buried secrets of these first people.

In early of 1881 Samuel Long and John Fee came from Ontario to Manitoba, and traveling south from Brandon, left the established trail and proceeded westward into what was then unsurveyed territory. They chose land, later identified as 32-5-23 when it was surveyed the next summer, in the district soon known as Meglund, a few kilometres southwest of present-day Hartney. The sod shack they erected that first season, soon known as “The Shanty” or “The Orphan’s Home”, was to serve as a stopping place and temporary home to a succession of newcomers in the next two years and the nucleus of a prosperous agricultural settlement. It was the first crucial step in the establishment of the farming economy and social/cultural network for a district that waited patiently for a rail link that would trigger the almost overnight appearance of the town of Hartney.

 

After the visit of the surveyors in 1889, the building began. When the train whistle sounded for the first train on Christmas Day 1890, The Lake of the Woods Milling Company had a grain elevator ready, as had David Leckie and H. Hammond. A boarding house erected by W.H. Hotham was in place. James Hartney and his brother-in-law S.H. Dickenson had erected store and post office, and Dr. Frank McEown had set up a practice and started work on a drug store.

William Hopkins had built his three-story brick building housing his store, a residence, and a meeting hall. Seemingly overnight all the services and goods one would expect in a thriving town were available to settlers who had waited for the better part of a decade.


 
As the town grew two brickyards, a flour mill and a sash & door factory contributed to the economy as the consolidation era was signaled by renewed and more permanent building, often in brick and with sometimes a more pretentious aspect. In 1902 A.E. Hill build the two-story brick block that still stands on the corner of Poplar and East Railway.

Along with the A.E. Hill family and James Hartney several other notable early citizens have left their mark on Hartney.  Some, like Festus Chapin and William Callendar contributed to the commercial growth, others like Irene Hill, Dr. Frank McEown, and Walpole Murdoch served in other ways.

 

In the early years of the twentieth century Hartney consolidated its position as a trading centre for the region while additional rail lines created the nearby smaller villages of Underhill and Lauder. 

As Hartney looks forward to the next century it has taken steps to preserved important aspects of its past, including the expansion of the Museum in the A.E. Hill Building.  When that building and several others recently figured prominently as sets in two movies; “The Lookout” and “The Stone Angel” the accompanying publicity could only help in their efforts.
The Town of Hartney has undertaken over the past few years to identify the area’s heritage assets and to educate community members about them. Through a rigorous inventory process, a “short list”—a collection of the buildings and sites that most effectively sum up the town’s history—has been identified. The buildings are an especially important legacy, and a handful of them still clearly express the various distinct forms, materials and details that are reminders of those early days. Many of the selected buildings are the best remaining representative of a common type, selected because of high physical integrity. Each reminds us through its physicality of the very origins of this special place. Copies of the inventory and shortlist, called “Special Places”, are available at the town office.
 
A Resource for Owners

This handbook is intended to function as a guide for owners who value the character of Hartney, and who want their building to be part of that. Making historically‐sensitive decisions about a building is often no more difficult or expensive than taking action that will compromise its heritage character and that of the streetscape. The goal with the handbook is to help provide some understanding of what makes a house or commercial property special as part of a unique community of buildings, and to impart information that helps to keep it that way.
Relatively little is known about the construction history of Hartney buildings. However, with its heritage site inventory, the town has made an excellent start at identifying types of resdiences and commercial buildings and of tracing their origins.
Much of the work that may need to be done in the course of regular maintenance or repair can be undertaken by almost any reasonably handy person with a basic set of tools. As well, a vast amount of information about historic building conservation and maintenance is available in books, magazines and on the internet (see the resources listed at the end of this guide as a start). Some of the available information is highly technical advice suitable for working on museum‐quality buildings – overkill for most ordinary buildings that are still in use. Nonetheless, documents such as the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada, (created under the Historic Places Program and easily found online by searching the title, or available on CD from Manitoba’s Historic Resources Branch) can help to explain the issues surrounding the conservation of heritage buildings, and will have many useful hints for any building work. Following are a few definitions of often‐used terms (paraphrased from those available in the Standards and Guidelines) which may be helpful in considering how these ideas might apply to your building.
Although you may think of your building as having only personal value, chances are it has heritage value that is enjoyed by the wider community. Heritage value may be defined as aesthetic, historic, scientific, cultural, social or spiritual importance or significance for past, present or future generations. The value is embodied in the character‐defining elements of a historic place: its forms, location, spatial configuration, uses and cultural associations or meanings. Think about what the character‐defining elements are for your building; in a relatively‐cohesive community such as Hartney, many will be common to most buildings.
What characteristics does your building share with its neighbours that make it a part of a whole? Perhaps there is something different or special about it – maybe an unusual floor plan, rooms relatively unchanged from when it was built, or extra detailing. These character‐defining elements are the features you should particularly preserve if you want to protect your property’s and your neighbourhood’s heritage value.
 
Conservation

The processes aimed at preserving heritage value can be grouped together under the heading of conservation: all actions or processes aimed at safeguarding the character‐defining elements of a cultural resource so as to retain its heritage value and extend its physical life. This starts with maintenance, which you are presumably practicing already. For building conservation purposes, maintenance is described as routine, cyclical, non‐ destructive actions necessary to slow deterioration. It includes periodic inspection, routine cleaning, minor repair and refinishing, and replacement of damaged or deteriorated materials that are not practical to save. During regular maintenance, it is a good idea to keep in mind your building’s character‐defining elements; often just a little more time or effort can save a historic detail for a building owner who knows it is worth preserving.
Beyond routine maintenance, there are three major categories of treatment: preservation, rehabilitation, and restoration. Restoration is generally kept for museum‐quality buildings, and entails returning the appearance of a site to match its original appearance or another specific moment (often referred to as its period of significance). Few homeowners would be interested in taking this approach; indeed, it could involve stripping away layers of history that potentially form part of the heritage value of a cottage. More useful for our purposes are preservation – protecting, maintaining, and/or stabilizing the existing materials, form, and integrity of a historic place while protecting its heritage value – and rehabilitation – making possible a continuing or compatible contemporary use of a historic place through repair, alterations, and/or additions, while protecting its heritage value. In each case, any work is done with continual reference to the character‐defining elements. Rehabilitation is often the approach to take with a building that is in very poor repair or is no longer functional for some other reason (e.g. its original purpose is obsolete). Depending on the state of the building, preservation could closely resemble maintenance and repair carried out with an eye to heritage value, while rehabilitation might involve bigger changes such as adding a carefully‐designed, historically‐sensitive addition.

Generally, you should think about whether the changes you are making are reversible, or whether you may be destroying forever some aspect of your building that you or your descendants may come to regret. The history of your community and maybe even your family is written in the walls of your building. Always document your work with photographs taken before, during and after the process.

Priorities

In general, heritage professionals worldwide agree that work on historic buildings should be undertaken according to the following order:
1. Repair rather than replace character‐defining elements. It is better to retain original materials and forms wherever possible. They are not only authentic, but there is an excellent chance that they are of a quality or workmanship that is no longer available (e.g. old growth wood, which is close‐grained and much longer lasting than the plantation‐grown wood we can buy today).
2. If you must replace character‐defining elements, do so “in kind”. That is, if the original is truly beyond saving, but sufficient physical evidence exists, copy it using the same materials, forms and details.
3. If replacement in kind is impossible owing to insufficient physical evidence for a copy, make your replacement compatible with the character of the building, basing the form, details and materials on similar cottages in the district.
Following is a guide to historically‐sensitive care for each aspect of your building, with helpful hints based specifically on the types of issues that Hartney building owners owners are likely to experience. Each section is illustrated with photographs and sometimes drawings, showing typical local examples to help you understand how your building fits in.
Always exercise caution when making any kind of major change; remember that any building is a system of components that interact with one another, and changing one aspect can have negative repercussions on others. Make sure you consider the consequences of any changes you undertake, and plan ahead to avoid or deal with them. The more you understand your building – its character and its mechanics – the better you can preserve its value for generations to come.


Purpose of Design Guidelines

These Design Guidelines are primarily for local government, building owners, tenants and business owners. Other interested parties may include builders, tradespeople, and volunteers.
This document will help the community better understand characteristics that have cultural, historical and architectural significance, which when considered holistically, give character to the community as a whole. Good design decisions can follow from this understanding. Understanding leads to better maintenance and conservation decisions over the long haul.

Design guidelines are not meant to be prescriptive; rather, they are meant as a description of good design choices.

The Town of Hartney Heritage website (www.hartneyheritage.ca) has information about local heritage resources and activities, and links to other sites of interest.

Manitoba’s Historic Resources Branch hosts several useful publications for heritage building owners, including the branch’s Maintenance Manual, Windows Guide and Green Guide. The site also links to other publications such as the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada.

Check the website of “Canada’s Historic Places” (www.historicplaces.ca) to learn about the range of historic sites in Canada.

The Heritage Canada Foundation is an advocacy organization whose mission is to encourage Canadians to “protect and promote their built, historic and cultural heritage.” You can browse the HCF website:
(www.heritagecanada.org) to find many useful articles about building conservation that have appeared in its magazine, Heritage.